The Call for Proposals for PRACE Preparatory Access Type A and Type B schemes is a continuously open call, with a maximum time-to-resources-access (start-date) of two weeks after the date of submission.
The next cut-off dates for Preparatory Access Type C and D proposals are:
- 1 December 2020 – 11:00 AM CET
- 1 March 2021 – 11:00 AM CET
- 1 June 2021 – 11:00 AM CEST
- 1 September 2021 – 11:00 AM CEST
The following table shows PRACE HPC Tier-0 systems and their current availability for Preparatory Access.
| System | Architecture | Site (Country) | Type A | Type B | Type C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joliot-Curie KNL | BULL Sequana X1000 | GENCI@CEA (FR) | √ | √ | √ |
| Joliot-Curie Rome | BULL Sequana XH2000 | GENCI@CEA (FR) | √ | √ | √ |
| Joliot-Curie SKL | BULL Sequana X1000 | GENCI@CEA (FR) | √ | √ | √ |
| HAWK | HPE Apollo | GCS@HLRS (DE) | √ | √ | √ |
| JUWELS Booster | BULL Sequana XH2000 | GCS@JSC (DE) | √ | √ | √ |
| JUWELS Cluster | BULL Sequana X1000 | GCS@JSC (DE) | √ | √ | √ |
| SuperMUC-NG | Lenovo ThinkSystem | GCS@LRZ (DE) | √ | √ | √ |
| Marconi100 | IBM Power 9 AC922 Whiterspoon | CINECA (IT) | √ | √ | √ |
| MareNostrum | Lenovo System | BSC (ES) | √ | √ | √ |
| Piz Daint | Cray XC50 System | ETH Zurich / CSCS (CH) | √ | √ | Not available |
Note 1: The JUWELS Booster is installed in 2020, therefore proposals for PRACE preparatory access can only be accepted after its official start of production.
Note 2: Applications requesting Piz Daint must use GPU accelerated codes.
The following table lists the PRACE Tier-1 HPC systems, which are available in the context of Preparatory Access Type D.
The specific system will be selected by PRACE, but applicants can specify preferences.
| Tier-1 system | Architecture |
|---|---|
| ARCHER, hosted by EPCC, (United Kingdom) | Cray XC30 |
| ARIS, hosted by GRNET, (Greece) | Lenovo NextScale |
| Bem, hosted by WCSS, (Poland) | Haswell based Cluster |
| Beskow, hosted by KTH-PDC, (Sweden) | Cray XC40 |
| Cartesius, hosted by SURFsara, (Netherlands) | Bull Bullx B720/B710 |
| EAGLE, hosted by PSNC (Poland) | Intel Xeon E5-2697 |
| GALILEO, hosted by CINECA, (Italy) | Lenovo NextScale |
| Mahti, hosted by CSC (Finland) | AMD Rome 7H12 |
| Salomon, hosted by VSB-TUO at IT4I, (Czech Republic) | SGI ICE-X |
The indicative schedule of the PRACE Calls for Proposals for Preparatory Access is as follows.
| Action | Types A & B | Type C and D |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal submission | Continuously open | Quarterly cut off dates – 1st working day of the quarter (March; June; September; December) |
| Administrative validation | 2 working days after submission | 2 working days after the cut-off date |
| Review of proposals & decision | Up to 2 weeks after submission | Up to 2 months after submission |
| Access start date | Up to 2-3 weeks after submission | Access is provided starting approx. 45-60 calendar days after the cut-off date. Please note that access of the December cut-off date may be slightly delayed due to Christmas break. |
The process to access resources after the communication of the decision on allocation is two-fold:
- Awardees are asked to confirm their availability and readiness to use the awarded resources during the stated period of time
- Access is provided after receipt of a positive reply.
The allocation decision, including the type of access, start/end dates, duration and the resources awarded is not open for negotiation.
As detailed in the Terms of Reference of the Call for Proposals for Preparatory Access, “the award of Preparatory Access proposals of Types A, B, C and D is limited by the amount of resources available. For type C and D, there are also limitations regarding the availability of the support from experts (in terms of staff hours) and the type of expertise required.”
In case of oversubscription of a particular resource, resources will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to suitable proposals based on the submission date until the resources are exhausted.
